The Sociology Project
by Layla Wolffe
Summary: Lily is a biker. James is a jock. They get paired up for a sociology project, and strike a deal. He will spend a week in her life, and she in his. Afterwards, they will each write papers about their experiences, and the different social groups in modern day high school. But when each realizes that there is more to the other than their original prejudices, will feelings arise?


Jily AU week Day 2 Prompt 2: Muggle AU

This one is a little out there. Lily is a biker, James is a jock, and they do _not _get along.

* * *

"Evans!" Someone yelled behind her, not sounding at all pleased.

She refused to turn around, continuing to casually lounge against the handlebars of her motorcycle.

"Evans," the person said again.

She still refused to turn around, taking a lazy drag from her cigarette, and blowing the smoke thoughtfully into the air.

The person stepped in front of her, and she cocked an eyebrow when she saw who it was.

"Potter," she acknowledged. "This is a… unexpected surprise."

James Potter was one of the most well-known boys in her high school. He was tall, good-looking, and played every sport the school offered- and played them well.

"I need to talk to you." Of course, he was also inconsiderate, arrogant, rude, and lorded it over anyone he deemed below him.

She waved her cigarette in the air, indicating that he should continue.

He huffed. "Would you at least look at me?"

She opened an eye. "Potter, you came here to see me. You wanted to talk to me. I however, went nowhere, and do not want to talk to you. Say what you want say, and get the hell out of here."

"Whatever. God. You don't need to be so rude."

Lily sighed, and turned to sit sideways on the seat of her motorcycle. "What do you want, Potter? My friends are going to be here soon, and I doubt they'd want to see you."

"The feeling is mutual," he muttered.

Lily tutted. "Now that was rude." She swung her legs off the side of her bike and moved to stand in front of him, purposely invading his personal space. "Look, Potter. I don't know why the hell you came here- God knows a rich boy like you looks upon this place and those who hang here with horror. So why don't you say whatever you need, I'll tell you to fuck off, and we'll be done here."

Potter glared at her. "Look, I don't know what you burnouts do here, nor do I care. All I know is that we got paired for that huge Sociology project and I will not get a terrible grade in that class just because some druggie who cuts half her classes wouldn't help me with my project."

"Well, Potter. Your opinion of me is fascinating. So, how about we make a deal."

He glared at her. "I am not doing this entire project by myself."

Lily laughed softly. "Oh, no, Potter, that's not at all what I was thinking. Believe it or not, I do have possession of my sanity. No," she said, stepping even closer. "I was thinking we do an experiment with modern high school social circles."

Potter frowned. "What do you mean? There's not that much difference. I mean, there's just the people who care about school, and those that don't."

Lily smiled sweetly. "Well then, Potter. You've already begun our experiment." At his confused look, she said, "Look, you think that there aren't distinct differences in the way high school students live their lives? Just people choosing different after-school activities?"

He nodded warily.

"Well, then. There's our project."

"…Please explain a little more in depth."

"This is what will happen. You will spend a week in my life, hanging with my friends, doing the things I do. Then I will do the same with your life. At the end of the two weeks, we will write our paper."

As he looked hesitantly at her, she let a wicked grin unfurl on her face. "So what do you say, Potter? Wanna come to the dark side?"

* * *

"So you're going to just do it? You're going to live Lily Evans' life?" Sirius asked incredulously.

James shrugged, tossing the basketball back to him. "How bad can it be? Besides, it's only one week."

"Well yeah," Sirius said. "But keep in mind, that girl ditches school as often as Katy Pilgrim uses italics. And she does drugs, and hangs out at all of the sketchiest places in town. She'll probably end up getting you arrested. How's that going to look on your record? You'll be benched!"

James sighed. "Look, mate, this project counts for over half of our overall grade. I can't afford to do anything less than perfect. And this way, once we live each other's lives, I'll prove to Evans that I'm right."

Sirius looked skeptical. "Whatever you say, mate."

A brief silence fell over the two as they continued practice. Eventually Sirius broke it once again. "So, where did you find her?"

James wrinkled his nose at the memory. "That creepy abandoned lot she and all her biker friends hang out at."

"The one with loads of graffiti on the building?"

"Yeah."

"That always smells like pot?"

"Yup."

* * *

"Well, Potter?" Evans grinned up at him. "Ready for your first day in sin?"

"Not technically," he pointed out. "We have class. We can't do anything in class."

Evans shook her head with fake sympathy. "Oh Potter. So naïve. There are many things we could do in class, none of which we are going to do now. Because today, Potter, you are going to cut class."

"What? No I'm not!"

Evans' gaze grew steely. "Yes you are. We had a deal."

James was just about to reply when Sirius stepped up behind him. "Evans," he said suavely. "You're looking… well today."

Evans rolled her eyes and placed her hand on her hip. "Why don't you just say what you mean Black?"

"Very well," Sirius said, grinning. "Evans, love, you look damn sexy."

"Why thank you, Black," she replied flirtatiously.

James shifted, feeling uncomfortable, not being able to resist casting a discreet glance at Evans' body. Sirius was right. She looked extremely attractive in a tough, punk girl way. Which James was not into. Not at all.

Evans turned back to him. "So, Potter? You've already sold your soul to the devil. It's time to face the music."

And so ten minutes later, James found himself standing next to Lily's (as she'd ordered him to call her) motorcycle in the school parking lot.

"I will not get on that thing," he insisted. "It will kill me. Or injure me. And I cannot afford that."

Lily glared at him. "Look Potter-"

"James-" he interjected.

"-I don't think you've completely understood what I am saying. You are living my life. That includes riding my motorcycle. So you are going to put this helmet on, and sit your ass down behind me."

Once again trapped by his own agreement, James snatched the helmet from her hand, and sat down on the bike behind her.

"You're going to have to hold on," she said, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"What?" he yelled over the revving of the engine.

"Hold on!" She yelled back as they sped out of the parking lot.

* * *

And so began James' week in Lily Evans' life. He was forced to go back to that awful lot to meet up with all of Lily's friends. He sat their while they smoked and made fun of him and his friends. He was completely miserable, but he was quickly realizing that he had entirely misjudged the situation.

"So you're a jock, huh?" An inhumanly gorgeous girl who'd introduced herself as Dahlia asked him one day at the lot.

"Yeah," he said confidently, certain that here, as in every other place, this would be deemed a good thing.

She pulled a face. "God, I fucking hate everyone in your entire crowd. You're all total assholes."

James looked offended. "What are you talking about?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot. "You know. You're always showing off in the halls, acting like you're better than everyone else, making fun of them behind their backs when you know nothing about them. It's sickening."

"Excuse me," he began heatedly, "But you know absolutely nothing about me-"

"I don't need to," she said quietly. "You do the same thing to me, and everyone else here. You call us names, talk about us, make fun of us, act like we're below you. And you know shit about us. Absolutely nothing."

He didn't reply to that, and rather than letting it go, she continued. "I mean, look at Lily. Did you know anything about her? No. Yet you called her a burnout, a druggie, all because she rides a motorcycle and skips school. You act as though she had every opportunity in life, and she rejected it, and therefore you can talk about her like she's nothing.

"And me." She went on. "God, the things people say about me, are ridiculous. I'm hot, so I must be a total skank. So, despite the fact that you don't know for a fact who I've slept with, how many people I've slept with, or if I've even had sex before, you talk about me like I'm a whore, and therefore I deserve to be looked down upon. And of course, if I turn you down, I'm a prude and a tease which makes me a bitch."

"I don't-"

"Sam Peters," she continued. "That name sound familiar? No? He's sitting right over there," she said, jerking her head at a boy leaning his head back against the wall, headphones on. "Last year in gym class, you and your jock friends made fun of him because he couldn't make a shot. Forget the fact that he's an utter genius with paint and canvas. Because he can't play sports, he's a loser and it's okay to make fun of him. Bobbi Jenkins. Her handwriting and spelling is awful, and in English class last year, a bunch of your friends asked her, 'are you stupid?' when they were peer editing her paper. The fact that she is dyslexic is apparently completely inconsequential.

"You're all just total dickheads," she finished off.

James sat there, stunned, as she moved on to ask another girl something. Never in his entire life had anyone ever spoken to him that way before. And for the first time, he briefly caught a glimpse of the 'other people's' perspective.

* * *

"Lily, where are we?" James asked nervously, as Lily led him purposefully down an extremely dangerous looking street.

She stopped abruptly in front of a small house. It had probably been quite pretty once, but now the paint was peeling, the grass was all dead, and the entire house seemed to sag with exhaustion.

"This," Lily said, "Is my house."

She quickly stepped off the crumbled sidewalk that led up to the door, and turned to a window almost hidden from view on the side of the house, prying it open.

"Why aren't we just going through the door," James asked.

"The lock busted about six months ago," Lily said, grunting with the exertion of pulling open the window. My dad nailed it shut so not one could get in. I use the window now."

"Why don't you just get a new door," James asked intelligently.

Lily, having finally opened the window, gave him a tired look. "James," she said softly, "I don't live here for kicks and giggles. We don't have the money to buy a new door."

Shocked into silence, he followed Lily through the window into what appeared to be a bedroom.

The walls were bare white, the only decorations where what appeared to be pictures taped to the walls. There was a mattress on the floor, with red sheets, and a multi-colored quilt. Next to the bed there was a picture frame, almost hidden from sight. Aside from the many, many books and few magazines piled around the floor, the entire room was bare.

"Is this your bedroom?" he asked awkwardly.

Lily nodded. "I just wanted to stop and grab a couple things. Wait here?"

He nodded, and as soon as she left the room, he immediately bent down to look at the books she had.

He didn't know what he'd expected to find. Cheap horror books, maybe. Instead he found The Bell Jar, Pride and Prejudice, The Tempest. Anna Karenina, and many, many copies of Greek tragedies that were well-worn, with bent pages, highlighted sentences, and even notes in the margins.

"Snooping?" A soft voice came from the doorway.

His head shot up to see Lily standing there, looking at him with a soft smile, not at all similar to the smirk she usually wore.

"Just looking at your books," he said smoothly. "They're not quite-er-"

"They're not quite what you'd imagine someone like me would love?" Lily asked, coming over and sitting next to him.

"I guess," he said, feeling ashamed. That was new.

She laughed, lightly. "It's alright. I guess I sort of understand. I wouldn't have expected it either."

She picked one of the books up, Oedipus Rex. She smiled down at the cover. "All of these books were my mother's," she said, not looking at them. "My father kept all the others she had, but he let me pick out my favorites. As you can tell, I'm rather fond of Greek plays."

"I am too," he said suddenly. "That one in particular is one of my favorites," he said, pointing to the one in her lap.

"Really?" She sounded surprised. "It didn't bother you?"

"Not exactly," he said slowly. "I mean, Oedipus truly loved Jocasta, and had never loved her as a mother, or even recognized her as a mother. I think the fact that they loved each other so deeply, and then found out something so terrible is really sad, but still beautiful in a way."

"Careful," she said nudging his knee with hers. "Someone might think you're sympathizing with him, and get the wrong idea!"

They both laughed.

* * *

"Well Evans, it's your turn this week!" James said, grinning wickedly at her. "Are you ready to submerse yourself in the 'prep' lifestyle?"

"Not at all," she replied dryly. But I may as well give it my all, right?"

"Right," he said, feeling absolutely giddy. "Well, this week, you may skip no classes. And you have to sit with us at lunch. And come to my football practices afterwards."

Lily smirked. "That's all you do Potter? The same thing, day after day? At least I gave you some texture."

"You didn't let me finish," James said, his smile lessening slightly. "On Friday, you will attend a party with me. And on Saturday, you will have dinner at my house."

Lily raised her eyebrows at this. "Dinner at James Potter's house? Never thought that would be happening in my daily life."

When James brought Lily to his lunch table that day, every person looked shocked, or angry. Some even both. But they said nothing as James announced,

"Hey guys. This is Lily. We're doing a Sociology project where we live each other's lives for a week, so she's going to be eating lunch with us."

This caused many raised eyebrows, as Lily and James sat down.

While everyone else pulled out their lunches and began to talk, Lily pulled out her schoolbooks and began her homework.

"Are you doing homework?" One of the boys asked her, shocked.

All eyes immediately turned to her.

"Yes," she said dryly. "So?"

"Why don't you do it at home?" Another asked.

Lily stared at him, not feeling comfortable sharing her personal information with him, yet at the same time wanting to shove her situation in his stupid, stuck-up face.

"I work after school. I don't have time to do homework."

"You have a job?" a cheerleader asked incredulously.

"That's generally what working means," Lily said somewhat snidely, returning to her books.

"Why don't you have lunch?" James asked suddenly.

"Why do you care?" she shot back.

He squirmed. "I dunno. I was just asking."

She looked at him for a long moment, before deciding that he wasn't trying to be mean. "I can't afford a lunch."

He looked at her, shocked.

"It's fine though," she said hurriedly. "I'm really not at all hungry, and I eat as soon as I get home."

"Okay," he said, sounding uncomfortable. Are you sure you don't want my sandwich, or something?"

She smiled at him. "No thank you."

Crisis overted.

Lily sat in the stands at James' basketball practice, completely bored. He'd insisted that if she needed to, she could skip it and go to work, but she replied that her boss was a lovely man, and she'd already called him, and he completely understood.

Now she regretted that decision.

Sitting on the uncomfortable bench, she sighed, looking upward, silently wishing she was back home.

Almost an hour later, the whistle blew, signaling the end of practice.

James jogged up to her, grinning.

"You were completely bored, weren't you?"

"Of course not," she lied. "It was fun to watch."

At his skeptical look, she broke down. "Okay, so it was really boring."

His smile grew even wider. "Well, now that you've had a taste of the life of James Potter, has your opinion of me changed?"

"My opinion of you has definitely changed," she said honestly. "But not because of everything that happened today."

He looked at her quizzically, clearly not understanding what she meant. But she couldn't explain it, not when she herself didn't understand.

"Well," she said, picking up her backpack. "I have to get home. I'll see you tomorrow."

Friday came quickly, and soon James was driving her to his party.

The party, it seemed, was not at all a type of party she was used to.

No alcohol.

No drugs.

No explicit dancing.

It was almost a larger version of their lunch. Food, and lots of people.

She was, once again, bored out of her mind.

At the end of the night, as James was driving her home, he remained silent, contemplating something, and then spoke. "So, you're coming to my house for dinner tomorrow, right?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. Um, is that okay?"

"Yes!" James said quickly. "I mean. Yeah. That's cool. It's just- um-"

"Wear something fairly nice and you'll pick me up?" Lily asked dryly.

James blushed. "Yes. That."

"Don't worry James. I do have dresses."

* * *

James stared at her in shock as she met him at her house the following day.

"What?" she asked, frowning. "Do I have dirt on me?" She inspected her cream-colored sundress.

"No," James cleared his throat. "It's just, um. You look really great."

"Really?" Lily blushed.

"Really."

Dinner, as it turns out, was actually quite an enjoyable experience. James' parents were ridiculously sweet, and very clearly spoiled their son. And, surprisingly, they absolutely adored Lily.

Later, as James and Lily walked around the gardens surrounding his house, James spoke again.

"I meant what I said earlier. You really do look beautiful."

Lily stopped walking, and turned to him. "James," she said haltingly. "Um, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about."

"Yeah?" James asked quietly, stepping closer to her.

"Yeah." Lily sounded nervous. "Well, this is it. The end of the week. We won't be spending time in each other's company anymore." She took a deep breath. "And I was wondering- I was wondering if your opinion of me had changed at all."

"Well, Evans," James said, stepping even closer. "I'd say it has. Quite a lot actually." He leaned his head even closer to her, and could hear her breathing hitch.

"Lily," he breathed. "Do you want me to kiss you?"

A pause.

"Yes."

And their lips met.


End file.
